Your primary duty as a Science Bowl Rules Judge is to:

Ensuring all competition rules are followed. To serve in this capacity, it is imperative that you fully understand all competition rules. Please review the competition rules before coming to the Science Bowl training session.

During the competition, if you should have to discuss a rule with the Moderator during a round, please be certain that the clock has been stopped. If you feel that time has been lost, ask the timekeeper to make a time correction.

Watching the teams and audience. Stand near the front of the room to watch both teams for breaking the rules and the audience for signaling, recording questions, or distracting the teams or officials.

Watching for Scorekeeper errors. If, for example, Team A is supposed to get four points, the Rules Judge needs to make sure the Scorekeeper doesn’t inadvertently credit the wrong team with those points.

Ensuring that quiet is maintained. During competition play, the Rules Judge is responsible for ensuring that quiet is maintained in the room and that no signals are given to the team members from the audience.

At the beginning of each half, check that all students have blank scratch pads and pencils. Collect any used scratch paper at the end of the half and discard.